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I am very proud to say that I am solely dedicating this post to the healthy, easy-to-bake-in-the-oven, and amazingly delicious spaghetti squash! I had never even tasted a spaghetti squash until trying a sample of the autumn squash earlier this week at Wegman's while I was grocery shopping. I really don't know how it wasn't in my life up until this point because...it's so darn scrumptious!!! If you were like me, and have yet to try this tasty squash, I'd certainly ask you to reconsider and give this vegetable a second chance. I also feel as though this recipe would be a picky-child pleaser too (coming from someone who was also quite picky in my younger years when it came to trying new foods).
You may find that your local grocery store will sell spaghetti squash either whole or by the half wrapped in plastic. I chose to purchase a whole squash, because i was cooking for 6 people total (and I love leftovers). If you are cooking for a group of four or less, you may want to opt for the half size for less quantity and less waste. I also chose to bake the squash whole (I prefer baking most things if I can and I enjoy the freedom to do other things while food is baking), but there are also recipes for either steaming, boiling, or microwaving your spaghetti squash as well.
The recipe on how to properly bake spaghetti squash in the oven can be here on Steamy Kitchen. Jaden has a wonderfully simplistic recipe/method to baking the squash and her photographs are just as wonderfu! I'm really glad I stumbled on her drool-worthy website, because I may be trying some other recipes as well! Baking the squash was really simple and it was quite successful on an old cookie sheet in the oven for a little over an hour (the squash I bought was also 4-5lbs). However, scraping the squash out after it was baked got to be a little messy! I tried to keep the mess at a minimum by attempting to scrape out all the squash over the sink with a large pot to catch all the squash goodness. I ended up getting pretty carried away and also ended up with little stringy bits of the squash all around where I was working...oh well!
Once I had scraped all the squash from the outer rind, rinsed it in cold water, squeezed the excess water out, I transferred it to a medium skillet with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on low heat. I mixed up the fresh baked strands with the oil and spices of your choice (I went with pepper, oregano, basil, garlic powder, and some creole cajun seasoning-of course a little of each goes pretty far). Once the squash was starting to heat up I added about 1/2 a can of crushed tomatoes (juice and all) to the mix. Top off your warm spaghetti squash with parmesan cheese (of not if you're vegan).
If you do decide to try baking up some spaghetti squash of your own (I really hope you do!) you can always change and adapt what you put in with it! I really enjoyed the crunch and texture spaghetti squash has to offer and just how much it really resembled eating the real spaghetti!
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